New to sound looking for a good basic set up

[Gary Douglas]

I'm up for having a laugh with cracking eggs and getting flour all over the place. Just a microphone that would give me acceptable sound in a boom mic situation, where the main objective is reducing ambient noise.

[Sacha Rosen]

any thing that the lens does not see... cover with a blanket...

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Gary Douglas

I'm up for having a laugh with cracking eggs and getting flour all over the place. Just a microphone that would give me acceptable sound in a boom mic situation, where the main objective is reducing ambient noise.

Would that getting good sound was as easy and simple as getting one best all-around mic. The fact is that sound recording is as demanding and exacting a part of filmmaking as is getting good images, perhaps more so.

Ambient noise from what sources - room reflections, air conditioning, generators, hydraulic drop-forge, aircraft carrier flight-deck, what?

Boom situation - indoors, outdoors, soundstage, one character, multiple characters, seated, walking, kung-fu fighting?

Camera coverage - close-up, medium shot, two-shot, wide establishing shot?

Potential options in approximate order of cost (by no means an all-inclusive list, just some frequent choices) ...

Interior booming - Hypercardioid such as Oktava M012, AKG Blueline S300B/CK93, Audio Technica AT 4053a, AKB ULS S480B/CK63, Neumann KM150, and the industry gold standard Schoeps CMC641.

Exterior booming - Hyper from above with GOOD wind protection, or, for a little more working distance, a short shotgun such as the Rode NTG-1, Audio Technica 4071a, Sennheiser MK416, Sanken CS3e, Neumann 81i, or Schoeps CMIT.

Camera angle such that a boom mic would have to be more than about 30 inches from the speaker's mouth to avoid intruding into the frame - forget any of the above and put lavs on the talent.